Sonntag, 5. November 2017 - 09:30 Uhr

We should move energy-intensive processes into SPACE to save Earth and help us become a 'multi-planetary civilisation', says Professor Brian Cox

Professor Cox was speaking during an interview as part of his Australian tour

He said moving high energy processes would leave Earth as 'purely residential'

Instead of reducing energy usage, this would allow us to increase usage

This would be the first step to making us a 'multi-planetary civilisation'

He's known for his controversial suggestions, and Professor Brian Cox's latest proposals are some of his wackiest yet.

In a new interview, Cox has suggested that energy and resource intensive systems should be moved onto other planets, leaving Earth as a 'purely residential' world.

Cox says the move would be a step towards building a 'multi-planetary civilisation' before Earth runs out of precious resources.

In a new interview, Professor Brian Cox has suggested that energy and resource intensive systems should be moved onto other planets, leaving Earth as a 'purely residential' world-

PROFESSOR BRIAN COX'S SUGGESTIONS

Professor Cox suggests that we should move energy and resource-intensive processes onto other planets.

He said: We've already industrialised space, if you think about it.

'But the next step is to really begin to build heavy industry up there, start going getting the resources that are available beyond Earth and converting them into things...And I think it's an extremely exciting time.

'There's a bit of a tension at the moment because in expanding our capabilities and our civilisation we're at the stage now where we are damaging this world that we rely on. So we can't carry on doing that. So how do you resolve that tension?

'The tension can be resolved by doing less, which is not a future that I want. I want to do more but I want to protect the planet at the same time.

'Well the answer is, you do more off the planet.'

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Cox was speaking during an interview with news.com.au, as part of his Australian tour.

He said: 'There's enough metal, metals, in the asteroid belt to build a skyscraper 8,000 stories tall and cover the Earth in it.

'Imagine that. Essentially, an unlimited amount of resources sat there in the asteroids.

'We've been to the asteroids already. There are companies now, particularly on the west coast of America, but also in Luxembourg in Europe, that are focused on mining those asteroids.

'So we're right on the edge of flipping our civilisation to a thing that just exists on the surface of a single planet to a thing that exists in a solar system, and that's the first step to building a multi-planetary civilisation.'

Cox pointed to Amazon's Jeff Bezos' move into the world of space travel, in the form of his firm, Blue Origin.

He said: 'The reason that (Bezos) is putting his money and his time and his energy into building rockets is that he thinks that the way to save our planet, the way to protect and grow our civilisation is to move off the planet, or move certain things off the planet.

'He said to me that he would like to see, in his lifetime, the Earth zoned residential...so if you imagine a planet that's zoned residential and all the energy intensive stuff and resource intensive stuff that currently we do here on the Earth, which damages it, is moved off.

'We do more of it than we do now — but we do it off the planet.'

Ultimately, our goal should be to use more energy, not less, according to Cox, who said this would allow us to 'expand civilisation.'

Professor Cox said: 'There's enough metal, metals, in the asteroid belt to build a skyscraper 8,000 stories tall and cover the earth in it. Imagine that. Essentially, an unlimited amount of resources sat there in the asteroids.' Pictured is a concept of a satellite attaching to an asteroid-

He added: 'We've already industrialised space, if you think about it.

'We all use communication satellites all the time, we're used to seeing television pictures beamed around the world, we use satellite navigation systems, our weather forecasting comes primarily now from satellites.

'But the next step is to really begin to build heavy industry up there, start going getting the resources that are available beyond Earth and converting them into things...And I think it's an extremely exciting time.

'What sort of world do we want to live in? We want to live in a world I think where the future is more interesting than the past. Where we're doing things that are more interesting than we used to do.

'There's a bit of a tension at the moment because in expanding our capabilities and our civilisation we're at the stage now where we are damaging this world that we rely on. So we can't carry on doing that. So how do you resolve that tension?

'The tension can be resolved by doing less, which is not a future that I want. I want to do more but I want to protect the planet at the same time.